If it isn't too much if a bother, could you tell me what your custom
census tag contains? I downloaded your custom census sources already.

Blake

On Apr 18, 2010, at 11:08 AM, Terry Reigel <>
wrote:

> Blake M. Stough wrote:
>
>> I actually thought you were creating a custom census tag
>> for census records, but I guess I was mistaken. I'm not
>> at my computer right now but will look over your article
>> again a little later today.
>
> Yes, I create Custom Tag Types for census. For US census, I have one
> for each census year. Those for 1850 and later are all the same
> except for the name of the Tag Type, which serves only to make it
> easy to spot which census tags exist for a person by scanning the
> list of Tag Types in the Details view for that person. For the years
> 1790 through 1840 they are similar in concept, but differ in detail
> because of the different age brackets recorded in the various years.
>
>> Let's say we have a family with John and Jane Doe as
>> husband and wife, and son Jim Doe all shown in a census
>> record. I would enter a census tag for all 3 of them, but
>> the head (John) would be listed as Principle for all of
>> them. (I'm going by memory since I'm not in front of my
>> computer.)
>
> For 1790 - 1840 I enter only the head of household as Principal,
> since that is the only person named in those years. For 1850 - 1930
> I enter the husband and wife, if both are present, as the two
> Principals. Some users object to that on the grounds that the census
> only identifies one head of household. But my census tag is not
> designed to simply extract what the census record says, but rather
> to record who was living in the household at that point in time
> (with the census as the source). In my view, the designated "head of
> household" and spouse were the heads of the family, and that's what
> I'm trying to record.
>
> Everyone else is entered as Witnesses, except boarders, servants,
> and the like, when I don't think they are family members. For 1850 -
> 1930 I have pre-assigned Roles that create my desired narrative
> output as long as the family consists of head of household, and
> optionally, spouse and/or one or more children. When there are no
> children, or more than one child, the head of household are entered
> as Principals, and any children are entered as Witnesses, and
> assigned the Roles "with Parents." The Sentence for the Principal
> Role automatically produces narrative naming the spouse and
> children, if present. The Sentence for the "with Parents" Role
> produces narrative stating that the child was living with his or her
> parents.
>
> If there is only one child, the Parent(s) are assigned the Role "one
> Son" or "one Daughter" as appropriate, and their narratives then say
> "their son" or "their daughter" was living with them, instead of
> "their children." If there is only one parent present, the child
> (ren) are assigned the Role of "with Father" or "with Mother" and
> then the children's narrative then says they were living with their
> father or mother instead of with their parents. Use of this Role
> also causes the parent's narrative to says "his children" or "her
> children" instead of "their children."
>
> Unlike some other users, I do not try to create Roles that
> automatically produce descriptive narratives for any other people
> living in the household. I make that choice for two reasons: there
> are just too many combinations of grandparents, aunts, uncles,
> nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, cousins, etc. to every get them
> all; and, perhaps more importantly, I've never seen an example of
> such constructs that actually produces decent narratives in any but
> the simple cases. Instead, I create all-purpose Roles like "Other,"
> "Other2," etc. and enter these extended family members as Witnesses,
> assigning these all-purpose Roles to them.
>
> Then I custom-craft narratives in the Memo to describe these other
> family members for the narratives of the heads of household (the
> Principals). I also write narratives in the Witness Memo to describe
> the relationships of the extended family members to the heads of
> household, and to other members of their immediate family who are
> also in the household. I use Sentence Variables in the Memo to name
> the extended family members, both so that the name is always my
> current name for that person (in case I change the primary name of a
> Witness after creating the Tag), and so that the name becomes a link
> in sites created by Second Site. By entering extended family this
> way, the narrative actually reads reasonably well, and it correctly
> describes any extended-family relationship that might be found.
>
> 1790 - 1840 Census is done quite differently, because others in the
> household can be surmised only from other evidence since they are
> not named in the census record.
>
> Terry Reigel
>
>
>
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